The Nether­lands will change from or­ange to yel­low this sum­mer as Utrecht hosts Le Grand De­part (the Grand Start) of the Tour de France in July. Yel­low be­cause it’s the sig­na­ture colour of this French tra­di­tion.

Af­ter five years, the fes­tive start of the fa­mous cy­cling race re­turns to the Nether­lands, mark­ing a record sixth time that the race starts in the Nether­lands, more than any other coun­try out­side of France. When asked why tour or­gan­is­ers seem to favour the Nether­lands, Tour de France direc­tor Chris­tian Prud­homme cites not only the coun­try’s ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tion, but its en­thu­si­asm for the sport. This char­ac­ter­is­tic zeal was noted in 1954 when the first launch of the tour out­side of France oc­curred in Am­s­ter­dam. L’Equipe, a French na­tional news­pa­per ded­i­cated to sports, wrote: “All of the Nether­lands